Review–Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup

Thursday, August 30, 2012

I am actually quite excited about this product because I feel like we’ve all been waiting a long time for Benefit to come out with a liquid foundation! I am a lover of almost all things Benefit so I felt confident in purchasing Hello Flawless. When it comes to foundation, I generally look for lighter coverage as I wear it more to even out my skin tone which is why I thought Hello Flawless would be perfect as it aims to give a natural complexion while making your skin look more vibrant and healthy-looking. This formula is also oil-free so this would be suitable for most skin types. I am actually a mixture of two shades, but because I am more tanned at the moment and will most likely go back to being “Vancouver-pale”, I opted for the lighter shade in IVORY aka the lightest shade in this line! Crazy!

Packaging: It’s Benefit, so it’s as cute and attractive as always. The plastic bottle comes with a pump for easy application with fingers, sponges or brushes.

Scent: Smells chemical-like…but it’s not overpowering and I definitely did not smell it once it was on my face.

Formula: Liquid foundations tend to accentuate how dry my skin is, especially around the nose, so I always have to apply a good layer of moisturizer first. Hello Flawless is definitely light in texture and on the face, but gives more coverage than for example, the Marcelle BB Cream. The coverage actually reminds me a lot of my Skinfood BB Cream, but with the foundation colour matching my skin tone a bit better. The main thing that I noticed right away upon application was that my skin tone was more even and did have a little bit more brightness to it. Application was easy as blending was relatively effortless.

Now, let’s address this “Oxygen Wow Hydrating Complex” since it’s actually on the front of the box! I feel like this needs addressing because this foundation makes some pretty serious claims! You can see from the above picture that this OWH complex is composed of three parts:

Boosting Cellular Respiration – The ingredient responsible for this is Saccharomyces Lysate Extract. In a quick word, this is good old yeast. In Biology, we love yeast to death! This is supposed to stimulate oxygen consumption in your skin cells and aid in tissue regeneration. Note that there is a little asterisk after this statement that points to the results being observed in vitro meaning that these results were observed in a pure cell culture in laboratory conditions. That’s not to say that these results aren’t valid, but just keep in mind that once something comes into contact with our skin, there can be immune cells or bacteria that may degrade the active ingredient that worked wonderfully in sterile conditions. Our skin faces some harsh environments so this yeast extract may or may not work and has not been definitively proven to work in humans.

Protecting Against Environmental Stresses: I think in this context, the term “environmental stresses” really mean free radicals and oxidation that lead to aging of the skin. Again, this point also has the little asterisk by it, but it’s not to say that what happened in vitro can’t happen in real-life as well. This point is closely connected to vitamin C and E derivatives.

Vitamin C and E Derivatives Known to Prevent Signs of Aging: The vitamin C derivative in Hello Flawless is Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate and is a synthetic form of vitamin C that is fat-soluble. Vitamin C is a well-known anti-oxidant and normally, vitamin C is water-soluble that’s why you can take as many vitamin C pills as you want and you will never be in any real danger because you just pee out what your body does not use. It is the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) that you cannot take too much of because your body does not excrete them. Now, that we have a form of vitamin C that is fat-soluble, it passes easily through the skin as our skin is also fat-soluble and stimulates the production of glycosaminoglycans which are essentially your body’s own moisturizers.

The vitamin E derivative is Tocopheryl Acetate is another anti-oxidant that is able to get right through to living skin cells and works in tandem with Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate for maximal anti-oxidative benefits.

So now that I’ve put you all to sleep, here is the naked face picture as promised! I don’t know how some of you girls look so amazing in self-portraits because I can never take photos of myself!

In the after photo, you can sort of see that my skin tone is a little more even and it is a little bit brighter right? It’s still very natural-looking and I guess it’s nice to know that my skin is also fighting oxidative stress at the same time :)

Final Verdict: My skin felt like it could still “breathe” and I had decent coverage that stayed perfectly all day with just moisturizer underneath. No primer. I loved the natural look of health I appeared to have and application was fairly easy. I wasn’t blown away by this product, but I wasn’t disappointed in its performance either. I do think that there are other foundations that do a similar job to Hello Flawless so I wouldn’t recommended you go rushing out to get this if you already have a foundation that works for you. However, if you are in the market for a foundation that is more lightweight with decent coverage, give this one a try during the next Shoppers event!

Great review, Jayne! I love how you explain the science behind the product. You face does look brighter with this foundation. I was curious about this foundation and glad you reviewed this! Thank you! :D

I'm glad you liked it! I felt like I was writing a mini lab report! I think a lot of the time products just rattle off a lot of hokum science and it's nice to know what's actually going on at the cellular level. I'd rather hear it from someone with a Biology background who can roughly explain what things mean.

I love this review and the packaging is cute! You're always so informative when it comes to ingredients, I love it. Your face does look brighter with the foundation on but I must say, your skintone looks so even before too!

So glad you enjoyed it! I always feel like the cosmetics industry thinks ppl are stupid when it comes to science because a lot of the time, there isn't anything too special about what's in a product and they're hoping we don't catch on and just get distracted by the packaging.

Aww, I'm lucky that I have fairly good skin which I get from my lovely mummy, but there is a slight difference in brightness which is nice. At least, the foundation does what it's supposed to do!

Great review! I would love to try a sample of this product but I don't know if I'm going to just go out and buy it.. Do you have 20x the points this week at shoppers too? I'm soo excited! I'm going to buy the Smashbox BB cream.. and try it.. I keep hearing good things..

Aww, thank you! I am very lucky that once I got out of my teenage years, my skin just settled down. It's actually because of a post you did about foundation that made me do full face shots because I remember you saying that seeing a foundation swatch on the hand doesn't really show what the finish is like and how it actually looks on the face. So, thank you for the advice!

Very thorough rundown! I enjoyed reading your observations and insights, especially how you deconstructed the marketing buzz. You have amazing skin without foundation - you barely need it! But I do see that the foundation makes your skin a little bit brighter/glowier and more even in tone. It still looks really natural though :)

I'm very glad you enjoyed it! It took awhile to write because I wanted to make sure that the facts were accurate and would help others. Thank you! I am very lucky to have the skin that I have, but you can see a slight difference for sure in the after picture.

That makes me so happy that you enjoyed the post! A lot of it is gimmick and it can be slightly annoying when you really like at the science behind it and realize a lot of what they're telling us is not quite as spectacular as they would like us to believe.

Your skin looks amazing (in both photos)! I tried this in Sephora the other day and loved the formulation..however I am still using my MUF HD foundation so didn't feel the need to make another beauty purchase!